"BOSTON IS on the verge of a building boom without a permanent director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's planning and development agency. Mayor Menino may be hands-on when it comes to development, but there are more projects in play than he could possibly juggle. And his judgment is anything but flawless in this area.

Massive changes are in store from North Allston, where Harvard University is planning its campus of the future, to East Boston, where luxury housing is being built along the piers. But who will pay for Harvard's proposal to sink a section of Soldiers Field Road and create a tree-lined promenade along the river?...

The next BRA director will soon see that even the simple stuff can be complicated. Suffolk University recently responded to the mayor's call to build dormitories as a means to ease pressure on the housing market in surrounding neighborhoods. But the Suffolk dorm proposal enflamed Beacon Hill residents instead. The BRA downsized the dorm out of respect, and Suffolk complied. Suddenly the mayor wearied of the whole thing and killed the project.